2003 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

• The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry was opened at Queens University, Belfast, this year. It houses the Heaney Media Archive, a unique record of Heaney's entire oeuvre, as well as a full catalogue of his radio and television presentations.^[1] That same year Heaney decided to lodge a substantial portion of his literary archive at Emory University.^[2]
• January 29 — Poet Dana Gioia, who had retired early from his career as a corporate executive at General Foods to write full time, becomes chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States government's arts agency.

Dana Gioia

• Call: Review, an American little magazine, is founded by poet John Most.
• After First Lady Laura Bush invited a number of poets to the White House, one of them, Sam Hamill started organizing a protest in which poets would bring anti-war poems. The February 12 conference was postponed, but Hamill organized a "Poets Against the War" Web site with contributions from others. More than 5,000 poems were contributed, including work by John Balaban, Gregory Orr, Rita Dove, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Adrienne Rich, Stanley Kunitz, Marilyn Nelson, Jay Parini, Jamaica Kincaid, Grace Paley and even U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Also on the Web site, W.S. Merwin contributed the highly emotional statement: "To arrange a war in order to be re-elected outdoes even the means employed in the last presidential election. Mr. Bush and his plans are a greater danger to the United States than Saddam Hussein." The new group, "Poets Against the War", organized poetry readings for February 12 across the country, demonstrating the strong links between many established poets and left-wing pacifism.^[3]
• Early November — Carl Rakosi celebrates his 100th birthday with friends at the San Francisco Public Library.

Works published

Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different; substantially revised works listed separately:

Australia

See also: 2003 in Australian literature

• Judith Beveridge, Wolf Notes
• Pam Brown, Dear Deliria (New & Selected Poems), winner of the 2004 NSW Premier’s Award for Poetry.^[4]
• Laurie Duggan, Mangroves
• John Kinsella, Peripheral Light
• Alison Croggon, The Common Flesh: Poems 1980-2002, Arc, ISBN 1900072726
• Geoff Page, editor The Indigo Book of Modern Australian Sonnets, Indigo (anthology)
• Chris Wallace-Crabbe, A Representative Human, Brunswick: Gungurru Press

Canada

• Derek Beaulieu, with wax (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451182
• George Bowering, Baseball: A Poem in the Magic Number 9 (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451236
• Di Brandt, Now You Care (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451274
• Anne Compton, Opening the Island
• Jill Hartman, A Painted Elephant (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451175
• Tim Lilburn, Kill-site, winner of the Governor General’s Award
• Don McKay, Varves, a chapbook
• Anne Simpson Loop, shortlisted for the 2003 Governor General's Award, winner of the 2004 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, ISBN 0-7710-8075-1
• Nathalie Stephens, Paper City (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451267
• Suzanne Zelazo, Parlance (Coach House Books) ISBN 9781552451281

Ireland

• Rosita Boland, Dissecting the Heart, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852353445
• Ciaran Carson, Breaking News, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852353407 2003
• Michael Coady, One Another, (poems and prose), Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852353575
• Gerald Dawe, Lake Geneva, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, ISBN 9781852353421

New Zealand

• Jenny Bornholdt, Summer
• Robin Hyde, Young Knowledge: the poems of Robin Hyde, edited and introduced by Michele Leggott, Auckland: Auckland University Press, posthumous

Poets in Best New Zealand Poems

Poems from these 25 poet s were selected by Elizabeth Smither for Best New Zealand Poems 2002, published online this year:

United Kingdom

• Gerry Cambridge, Madame Fi Fi's Farewell and other poems, Luath Press, ISBN 1842820052^[5]
• Ciarán Carson: Breaking News, Gallery Press, Wake Forest University Press, awarded the 2003 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection
• Carol Ann Duffy, The Good Child's Guide to Rock N Roll, Faber and Faber (children's poetry)^[6]
• James Fenton: The Love Bomb, verse written as a libretto for a composer who rejected it; Penguin / Faber and Faber^[7]
• Lavinia Greenlaw, Minsk, Faber and Faber
• Peter Redgrove, Sheen
• Simawe, Saadi, editor, Iraqi Poetry Today, London: King's College, ISBN 0-9533824-6-X

Criticism, scholarship and biography in the United Kingdom

• R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. II: The Arch-Poet 1915–1939, Oxford University Press ISBN 0198184654
• Matthew Campbell, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry, Cambridge University Press

United States

• Dick Allen, The Day Before: New Poems (Sarabande Books)
• Charles Bukowski, sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way (Ecco)
• Henri Cole, Middle Earth (Farrar, Straus & Giroux); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Cid Corman, Now/Now
• Annie Finch, Calendars
• John Hollander, Picture Window
• Wi lliam Logan, Macbeth in Venice
• Howard Nemerov, The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov, edited by Daniel Anderson (Swallow/Ohio University) published posthumously); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Mary Oliver, Owls a nd Other Fantasies: poems and essays
• Kenneth Rexroth, Complete Poems (posthumous)
• Margaret Reynolds, The Sappho History (scholarship), Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 9780333971703 ISBN 0-333-97170-1
• C. J. Sage, editor, And We The Creatures: Fifty-one Contemporary American Poets on Animal Rights and Appreciation (Dream Horse Press)
• Charles Simic, The Voice at 3:00 a.m.: Selected Late & New Poems (Harvest Books)(Harcourt); a New York Times "notable book of the year"
• Tracy K. Smith, The Body’s Question won the 2002 Cave Canem Prize for best first book by an African American poet (Graywolf Press)
• Rosmarie Waldrop, Love, Like Pronouns (Omnidawn Publishing)
• William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukofsky, The Correspondence of William Carlos Williams & Louis Zukofsky, edited by Barry Ahearn (Wesleyan University Press)
• Kirby Wright, Before the City (Lemon Shark Press); winner of the San Diego Book Award for Poetry

Poets included in The Best American Poetry 2003

The 75 poets included in The Best American Poetry 2003, edited by David Lehman, co-edited this year by Yusef Komunyakaa:

Other

• Yi Sha, Yi Sha shixuan ("Yi Sha's Poems"), China^[8]
• Marie Šťastná, Krajina s Ofélií ("Scenery with Ophelia"), Czech Republic
• Wisława Szymborska: Rymowanki dla dużych dzieci ("Rhymes for Big Kids"), Poland

Awards and honors

José Emilio Pacheco at the Octavio Paz award this year

Australia

• C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry: Emma Lew, Anything the Landlord Touches
• Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize: Mangroves by Laurie Duggan, University of Queensland Press
• Grace Leven Prize for Poetry: Stephen Edgar, Lost in the Foreground, Duffy & Snellgrove
• Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry: Jill Jones, Screens Jets Heaven

Canada

• Gerald Lampert Award
• Archibald Lampman Award
• Atlantic Poetry Prize
• Giller Prize: M.G. Vassanji - The In-Between World of Vikram Lall
• See 2003 Governor General's Awards for a complete list of the winners of those awards.
• Griffin Poetry Prize Canada: Margaret Avison, Concrete and Wild Carrot; International, in the English Language: Paul Muldoon, Moy sand and gravel
• Pat Lowther Award
• Prix Alain-Grandbois
• Shaunt Basmajian Chapbook Award

New Zealand

• Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement:
• Montana New Zealand Book Awards First-book award for poetry: Kay McKenzie Cooke, Feeding the Dogs, University of Otago Press

United Kingdom

• Cholmondeley Award: Ciaran Carson, Michael Donaghy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Jackie Kay
• David Cohen Prize: Thom Gunn (joint winner with novelist Beryl Bainbridge) (joint winners)
• Eric Gregory Award: Jen Hadfield, Zoe Brigley, Paul Batchelor, Olivia Cole, Sasha Dugdale, Anna Woodford
• Forward Poetry Prize Best Collection: Ciaran Carson, Breaking News (The Gallery Press); Best First Collection: A. B. Jackson, Fire Stations (Anvil Press)
• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry: U. A. Fanthorpe
• T. S. Eliot Prize (United Kingdom and Ireland): Don Paterson, Landing Light
• Whitbread Award for poetry: Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

United States

• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize awarded to David Shumate for High Water Mark
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, W.S. Merwin
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry, Julie Sheehan for “Brown-headed Cow Birds”
• Bollingen Prize for Poetry, Adrienne Rich
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Brian Teare, The Room Where I Was Born
• Frost Medal: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• National Book Award for poetry: C.K. Williams, The Singing
• Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: Louise Glück appointed
• Pulitzer Prize for poetry (United States): Paul Muldoon, Moy Sand and Gravel
• Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award: George T. Wright
• Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize: Linda Pastan
• Wallace Stevens Award: Richard Wilbur
• William Carlos Williams Award: Gary Young, No Other Life, Judge: Angela Jackson
• Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets: Li-Young Lee

Deaths

English poet Kathleen Jessie Raine

Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:

• March 16 – Susan McGowan, poet (born 1907), Australian
• June 28 – C. B. Christesen, poet and founding editor of Meanjin (born 1911), Australian
• July 6 – Kathleen Jessie Raine (born 1908), a English poet, critic and scholar
• July 8 – Subhash Mukhopadhyay (born 1919), Bengali poet
• July 9 – Josephine Jacobsen (born 1908), American poet, short story writer, and critic
• July 15 – Roberto Bolaño, at 50 (born 1953), from liver disease, Chile
• August 7 – F. T. Prince (born 1912), South African-English poet and academic
• September 3 – Alan Dugan (born 1923), American poet
• November 3 – Rasul Gamzatov, Avarian/Soviet/Russian poet, called the "People's poet of Dagestan" (aged 80)
• November 27 – Talal al-Rasheed, Saudi poet (aged 41?)
• December 12 – Fadwa Toukan, 86, Palestinian poet
• December 23 – John Newlove (born 1923), Canadian poet
• date not known – Heinz Piontek (born 1925), German^[9]

Notes

Indian poet Keshav Malik, also a writer and arts curator, in a photograph taken this year

1. ^ Website
2. ^ Press Release
3. ^ [1]Knowles, Joe, "Poets Against the War", In These Times, February 14, 2003, accessed January 25, 2007
4. ^ Poetry International Web - Pam Brown
5. ^ "Publications" page, Gerry Cambridge website, retrieved December 1, 2008
6. ^ O’Reilly, Elizabeth (either author of the "Critical Perspective" section or of the entire contents of the web page, titled "Carol Ann Duffy" at Contemporary Poets website, retrieved May 4, 2009. Archived 2009-05-08.
7. ^ [2]Web page titled "Books by Fenton" at the James Fenton Web site, accessed October 11, 2007
8. ^ Web page/article titled "Yi Sha" at Poetry International retrieved November 22, 2008
9. ^ Hofmann, Michael, editor, Twentieth-Century German Poetry: An Anthology, Macmillan/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006

• [3] "A Timeline of English Poetry" Web page of the Representative Poetry Online Web site, University of Toronto

See also

Poetry portal

• Poetry
• List of years in poetry
• List of poetry awards